Wednesday, December 2, 2009

eSpecialMatch.com is a social networking site dedicated to connecting the families of children with special needs and the professionals that serve them. The goals of eSpecialMatch.com are to:

1. Create a community where families can find information, support, friendship, and appropriate peers for their children 2. Connect families with service providers (therapists, doctors, etc.) 3. Help service providers connect with others in their field and across fields for professional development

About eSpecialMatch.comMike Radicone, founder and creator of eSpecialMatch.com; A social network dedicated to families with special needs children and the professionals who serve them. But before we get into the wide range of resources this website can offer, here is a brief bio of the founder and creator, Mike Radicone.

After earning a Masters in Special Education, he began working as an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapist in private home sessions. Throughout his career as an ABA therapist, he serviced preschool and school-aged children with a wide variety of special needs including Autism, Aspergers, Down Syndrome, Speech/Language disorders, ADD/ADHD and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), to name a few. His background consists of extensive private school and public school teaching (mainly in a self-contained capacity) where parent interaction and training are at the forefront of responsibilities. In addition to teaching, he currently speaks at educational conferences, provides training to parents and teachers, facilitates social groups and transition special needs students to new schools.

Over time he has met many amazing families who have put a great deal of time, money, and effort into providing the best experiences they can for their children. Several families expressed the challenges they faced in finding other families that have children with similar needs to their own, and specifically in locating social peers, therapists, and information. One day it clicked and he decided to introduce two of these families to each other and, in a short period of time, noticed some very positive results. The children, with different degrees of disabilities, were able to interact with each other and the adults had an opportunity to share information, experiences, and ideas. They continued to keep in touch and set up play dates, no longer needing me to facilitate the meetings. This sharing of information and bringing people together through their personal experiences is the premise behind eSpecialMatch.com.

Please review the website and take a few minutes to create a profile and join the eSpecialMatch.com community! Connect with other families, share stories, blog with a therapist and take advantage of the many other resources that eSpecialMatch.com has to offer. Your feedback is valuable so please contact info@especialmatch.com with your comments/questions.

Sometimes a little bit of inspiration and creativity can create awesome moments to share with your child with special needs. Some days you just need a little lift and a guiding push. Weekly Art Projects is an email delivered to you once a week with quick ideas to get your creativity rolling.

After completing a project, you can email us the results and we'll post to our blog for everyone to see and share inspiration.

Join the Weekly Art Projects list by signing up for our email newsletter. A weekly email encouraging creativity and inspiration. A new art project via email every week

Weekly Projects will:

* stir creativity for both you and your child * bring inspiration as you both enjoy the activities together * solve boredom * give you somewhere to "start"

Our hope is that with a weekly jolt of ideas we can individually inspire our kids. Together we can enjoy being creative while inspiring them to come up with great ideas on their own. Some ideas will be an exercise in being silly, a new perspective and others will be works of art!

We will post the Weekly Art Project to this blog as well as email out the Weekly Project. Simply sign up and enjoy!

The 1$ Help Max Fund

Hi All!
If you have benefited from this site you can make a huge difference in our lives! My son has Autism. Your 1 $ contribution can go along way in helping me to help him! Helping to recover my child from this crazy world called Autism. And yes! I do believe in Recovery!